Snow at Lynden

The snow has brought out the snowshoers—the cross-country skiers can’t be far behind. The mulberry bushes beyond my window are buried up to their necks, their trunks beneath the snowline, and Tony Smith’s Wandering Rocks look a little bit like wandering tabletops adrift in the snow.

Lynden is a beautiful place to visit in winter: snow transforms not only the scale of the trees and sculptures, but the relationships between them. It’s the loss of monumentality, the slightly humorous sense that we’re looking out on a squat forest of bushes that have showered brightly colored objects onto the ground around them. Today we will blow a path around the ponds so that it is possible to walk without taking the slow, high steps that we use to navigate through deep snow. (And just a note on closings: we sometimes decide to close to the public during heavy snowstorms, both to discourage people from taking to the roads and to give staff a little time to clear the parking lot. We announce these temporary closings, along with ice-skating info, on Facebook.)

Inside, we are working on summer plans. We have all seen the recent round of cancellations, and we are picking our way as carefully as possible through the minefield that is the future. We know that many of you want to know about camps, but rather than make a grand announcement now that has to be walked back in a few months, we have decided to defer our decision—and the attendant drain on our human resources that comes with planning things that don’t happen—until March. We appreciate your patience, and fully understand that many of you will have to make other plans in the interim. We are in the process of confirming a tentative date (!) for the backyard barbecue, and we will be sharing that information shortly. We have several large projects in the queue, some backed up since last summer, and we are trying to figure out what will be in person, what will be virtual, and what will be postponed once again.

This month, you can join Chuck Stebelton for some birdwatching; bring your dog for dog day; make resin pendants with Leslie Perrino; or learn how to make wot and its cousins during the HOME/Tables Across Borders Great Community Cooking Show. We have a number of events related to the Nohl Fellowship program: 2019 Nohl Fellows Ras ‘Ammar Nsoroma and LaNia Sproles will speak on UWM’s Artists Now lecture series, and Paul Druecke (Nohl 2010) will conduct a two-part workshop for artists on building a website. Small children are welcome at Tuesdays in the Garden (in person) and our bilingual HOME Story Time (virtual).

February events, arranged chronologically:

All in-person programs take place outdoors. For the safety of all concerned, you must register in advance. Masks are required and social distancing guidelines will be followed.

Tuesday, February 9, 2021- 10:30 am-11:15 am
TUESDAYS IN THE GARDEN FOR PARENTS & VERY SMALL CHILDREN
The 40 acres that house the Lynden collection of monumental outdoor sculpture are also home to many birds, insects, frogs, mammals, and plants. Join art educator Claudia Orjuela for hands-on art making and all-senses-engaged exploration of the outdoor world at Lynden. We’ll consider a new theme each month, each designed to engage your child’s curiosity and encourage outdoor play, experimentation, and the manipulation of art materials. Tuesdays in the Garden is designed for children aged 1 through 3 and their caregivers. The theme for February is sledding fun.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021– 10:30-11 am VIRTUAL
HOME: STORY TIME
Join us for a virtual, bilingual HOME Story Time from the comfort of your home. HOME Story Time features children’s books written or illustrated by authors, illustrators, and artists who have faced forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, or immigrants. Designed for children aged 4-8, we end each session with an art activity from Lynden art educator Claudia Orjuela. Worksheets and handouts will be available for download. Scheduled to screen every second Wednesday of the month, HOME Story Time is a collaboration with the Milwaukee Public Library, the Islamic Resource Center, Hanan Refugee Relief Group, and Alliance Française de Milwaukee. Videos will remain on view once they are posted. In February we are reading Going Home, Coming Home/Về Nhà, Thăm Quê Hương, written by Truong Tran and illustrated by Ann Phong, read in Vietnamese and English.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 7:30 pm
VIRTUAL
NOHL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
UWM DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN: ARTISTS NOW! GUEST LECTURE SERIES
RAS ‘AMMAR NSOROMA
arts.uwm.edu/artistsnow
Ras ‘Ammar Nsoroma is a muralist, portraitist, and mixed media painter. He is a 2019 Nohl Fellow and in 2020 was named a Milwaukee Arts Board Artist of the Year. His work centers around the spiritual, cultural, and political consciousness of the African Diaspora. After brief studies at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Nsoroma embarked on a career as an artist that has lasted more than 35 years. His current body of work explores the world of the Orisha, African deities of the pantheon of the Yoruba people.
This lecture will be available as a pre-recorded virtual event. The link to the recording will be posted the following day at arts.uwm.edu/artistsnow.

Sunday, February 14, 2021 – 8:30-10 am
BIRDING WITH POET CHUCK STEBELTON
Join poet and birder Chuck Stebelton the second Sunday of each month for a small-group, socially distanced birdwalk on the grounds. Keeping to the perimeter of the garden, we’ll watch for resident bird species and seek out the best bird habitats to identify as many species as we can. Please dress for the weather and plan to walk in varied terrain. Bring your binoculars if you have them; no previous birding experience required.

Saturday, February 20, 2021 – 10 am-4 pm
DOG DAYS AT LYNDEN
Bring your canine friends for a wintery walk. Dogs must be leashed and considerate of other visitors, canine and human.

Two Saturdays, February 20 & February 27, 2021 – 1-2:30 pm
VIRTUAL
HOW TO BUILD YOUR WEBSITE: A WORKSHOP FOR ARTISTS WITH PAUL DRUECKE
The Lynden is offering a series of occasional professional skill-building workshops as part of the support for local artists we provide through the Nohl Fellowship program. Designed by and for artists, the workshops address frequently voiced needs and are free to artists. Having an online presence has never been so important for artists. This two-part workshop offers practical information and tools for creating your website whether you are starting from scratch of have a pre-existing site in need of updating. Participants will learn how to prioritize goals for their website, determine potential audiences, and prepare work and other documentation. We will walk through deciding whether to self-design or hire a professional as well as looking at the many web host options. Whether your ideal website is one page with highly focused content or a comprehensive archive, the workshop offers do’s and don’ts to effectively communicate with your audience. Participants will receive a digital, take-away package of information that recaps workshop content and serves as an ongoing resource for developing and maintaining your website.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 – 10 am-3 pm VIRTUAL
RESIN PENDANTS: A JEWELRY WORKSHOP WITH LESLIE PERRINO
Learn how to make dazzling pendants by creating miniature collages of decorative materials and covering them in clear resin. The possibilities are endless! Learn how to prep and reduce bubble formation to get lovely results and expect to make at least four pendants by the end of the session. Gather your mementos and join Leslie Perrino online for this hands-on workshop. No experience necessary.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 7:30 pm
VIRTUAL
NOHL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
UWM DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN: ARTISTS NOW! GUEST LECTURE SERIES
LaNIA SPROLES
arts.uwm.edu/artistsnow
LaNia Sproles is a 2019 Nohl Fellow who lives and works in the segregated city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her work spans several disciplines including printmaking, drawing, and collage. The philosophies of self-perception, queer and feminist theories, and inherent racial dogmas are essential to her work, as are the productions of feminist artists and writers such as Octavia Butler, Kara Walker, and Rebecca Morgan. Sproles received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2017 and is an artist-in-residence at the Lynden Sculpture Garden.
This lecture will be available as a pre-recorded virtual event. The link to the recording will be posted the following day at arts.uwm.edu/artistsnow.

Sunday, February 28, 2021 – 2-4 pm
VIRTUAL
HOME: TABLES ACROSS BORDERS COMMUNITY COOKING SERIES
THE GREAT COMMUNITY COOKING SHOW
On Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/LyndenSculptureGarden/
The HOME Refugee Steering Committee at Lynden and Tables Across Borders invite you to join us for the third episode in our (virtual) bimonthly community cooking series. Tables Across Borders is a global food tour collaboration highlighting local refugee chefs and the cuisines and cultures of refugee communities in Milwaukee. The community cooking series is an opportunity for chefs across cultures to share tips and recipes from their own cuisines while also allowing us to explore how cuisines cross-pollinate as people migrate and need to adapt techniques and ingredients in a new homeland. Cooking is a place where we interact, exchange, borrow, and invent and imagine new ways of being with each other. In this episode, we feature head chef Abebech Jima from Ethiopia as she makes a hearty, warm stew known as “wot” consisting of legumes and vegetables. Joining Jima are participating chefs from various refugee communities in Milwaukee including Ifrah Yusuf (Somali), Hasina Begum Ashraf Mia (Rohingya), Paw May June (Karen), and others.

COMING UP IN MARCH

Expect regular monthly activities: birding with Chuck Stebelton, a dog day, HOME bilingual story time, and Tuesdays in the Garden. As thoughts turn to spring and summer (and gardening), Justine Miller returns with a virtual iteration of her popular workshop: Native Plant Landscape Design. Keep an eye on the web calendar for more virtual and outdoor offerings.

Come play in the snow,
Polly
2/2/21

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.